On a lighter note, the results for last week's tipping are in. This week, bragging rights go to Atreiu! Well done mate... 54 points is an awesome score, always helped by picking a full podium - this time the 125's. In fact, Atrieu was the only one to pick a podium this round

And now for the Championship... <drum roll> ... Giddy takes out his second consecutive title! With a 49 point lead over Makarias he can't be caught given there is a maximum of 45 points on offer this weekend. This competition has 22 rounds and giddy has lead for 20 of them. I had a five point lead on him after the second round (WSBK Valencia) which was rapidly overhauled, then Makarias had a two point lead after round 11 (MotoGP Assen). He has won the round 7 times, so his performance has been peerless. Congratulations mate - a victory well deserved.

It is bit ironic that the Yam’s president made an announcement to step down a day after they won the championships by taking the responsibility for the worst financial performance in 26 years. They are losing big time, expecting net loss for 1.8B dollars this year. New president said they are facing the most difficult time since the inception of the company.

It always makes me laugh how Aussies complain about English whinging and yet all we ever get is Stoner or Mladin whinging and then people on here whinging about things also, you guys are worse than my mum who reads the Daily Mail and thinks the world is going to pot.

Lets face it. Cal Crutchlow and Stoner have got one championship to boot. Rossi has 9. Rossi cracked the records again, Stoner or Crutchlow didn't. Rossi is 10000x more known than Crutchlow and 100x more than Stoner in the big wide world and yet people complain about Moody and MCN doing the right thing for THEIR READERS.

Stoner fans who complain about Rossi will remain obsessed fanboys in my eyes until he can win a world championship without the best tyres and best engine. Be prepared for another season of sadness in 2010, at least you will be more used to it by then.

On a less jovial and joshing note, Tom Wheatcroft has died and for any British motorcycle enthusiast that is a sad blow

RegardsAndy

What are you on Andy?We were talking about biased press articles. Why is this taken by you as a shot at Vale?It was also initially brought up by Atreiu who is not Australian, so please also keep the nationalistic crap out of the thread.

So in essence.We discussed biased articles by one particular journalist who never actually mentioned who won the race he is paid to report on.How dare we as paid subscribers (I am) question the articles. Surely I can expect unbiased journalism?You then say it is an attack on Rossi by Australians and call us whingers. I challenge you to go back & find where someone was pot shotting Vale.Here is a second challenge. Go back and find a post where I criticize any rider in any series. You then sink the boot into Stoner and bring up his one title to Vales 9.

But the funniest bit of all is that you then call other people obsessed fanboys.Seriously - Have you heard the term "Pot calling the kettle black"?Your post belongs on Crashnet not here.

I hope Herrin, Aquino, and Cardenas are NOT in AMA next year. They need to be somewhere else.

And where exactly? BSB? WSS? Japan?

On a lighter note, the results for last week's tipping are in. This week, bragging rights go to Atreiu! Well done mate... 54 points is an awesome score, always helped by picking a full podium - this time the 125's. In fact, Atrieu was the only one to pick a podium this round

And now for the Championship... <drum roll> ... Giddy takes out his second consecutive title! With a 49 point lead over Makarias he can't be caught given there is a maximum of 45 points on offer this weekend. This competition has 22 rounds and giddy has lead for 20 of them. I had a five point lead on him after the second round (WSBK Valencia) which was rapidly overhauled, then Makarias had a two point lead after round 11 (MotoGP Assen). He has won the round 7 times, so his performance has been peerless. Congratulations mate - a victory well deserved.

What are you on Andy?We were talking about biased press articles. Why is this taken by you as a shot at Vale?It was also initially brought up by Atreiu who is not Australian, so please also keep the nationalistic crap out of the thread.

So in essence.We discussed biased articles by one particular journalist who never actually mentioned who won the race he is paid to report on.How dare we as paid subscribers (I am) question the articles. Surely I can expect unbiased journalism?You then say it is an attack on Rossi by Australians and call us whingers. I challenge you to go back & find where someone was pot shotting Vale.Here is a second challenge. Go back and find a post where I criticize any rider in any series. You then sink the boot into Stoner and bring up his one title to Vales 9.

But the funniest bit of all is that you then call other people obsessed fanboys.Seriously - Have you heard the term "Pot calling the kettle black"?Your post belongs on Crashnet not here.

I'm more than happy to be called a fanboy, hopefully not so much that I get blinkered to statistics etc though. I didn't mean it as an insult to anyone either, just an observation.

You mention that a journalist was biased, the problem is that journalists are a lot less biased than the people who read their output. Journalists are always accused of being biased when they don't write how the reader wishes, this is more a comment on the readers bias than the writers! Unless you are completely neutral you will find it very hard to actually have any weight to your claims.

Personally I think Dean Adams is biased pro Mat Mladin, jeez, he is terribly biased pro Mat and stuck up his ass. Me disliking Mladin has nothing to do with me making that claim of course ;)

People on this thread like Stoner, so much so that he got as much, if not more, favourable comments after the race. Ok, he was very impressive, but it is just one race and a wet one to boot and he had nothing to lose. So given that posters on this thread pump Stoner it's no wonder that complaints about other people not giving as much kudos or credit was probably to be expected.

Hopfully this weekend we with have a classic multibike race for the win, currently I am favouring Lorenzo just over Stoner.

Andy, my post about the autosport journo, was not about his praise or lack of praise about Stoner. It was about his falsehood bullshit about something that he falsely commented about.

It hit my nerve, not because of Stoner, but because a son of mine, who was in the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport), who had a scholarship to Melbourne Grammar School ( a 25 grand a year school ), who was rated #2 in Australia in his sport, who was rated excellant academically, and then got chronic fatigue and suffered because of it, I have learn't about various aspects of chronic fatigue.

Before I thought it was bullshit - a cop out of some type.

However, my ignorance did no one harm. But ignorance in journalism is another matter IMO.

As to fanboyism in journalism - its mandatory. Because it sells media to its audience. Nothing wrong with that - it pays people's wages. And the readers get what they want.

You want to read about how great Rossi is - so you like that type of journalism. That's fine. Enjoy it please.

But when it falsely discusses health issues - that is beyond the pale. It's simply not justifiable IMO. And it negatively effects others as well.

A fair examination of Stoner's health issues could have helped many people who might go through such ill health issues - at work, in sport, in life. Stoner could be quite an inspiration to those wanting to recover from such issues. To label it the way that journo did was outrageous IMO, and a lost opportunity for others. And to pocket such bad journalism into some kind of Rossi argument is way off the mark.

Andy, my post about the autosport journo, was not about his praise or lack of praise about Stoner. It was about his falsehood bullshit about something that he falsely commented about.

It hit my nerve, not because of Stoner, but because a son of mine, who was in the AIS (Australian Institute of Sport), who had a scholarship to Melbourne Grammar School ( a 25 grand a year school ), who was rated #2 in Australia in his sport, who was rated excellant academically, and then got chronic fatigue and suffered because of it, I have learn't about various aspects of chronic fatigue.

Before I thought it was bullshit - a cop out of some type.

However, my ignorance did no one harm. But ignorance in journalism is another matter IMO.

As to fanboyism in journalism - its mandatory. Because it sells media to its audience. Nothing wrong with that - it pays people's wages. And the readers get what they want.

You want to read about how great Rossi is - so you like that type of journalism. That's fine. Enjoy it please.

But when it falsely discusses health issues - that is beyond the pale. It's simply not justifiable IMO. And it negatively effects others as well.

A fair examination of Stoner's health issues could have helped many people who might go through such ill health issues - at work, in sport, in life. Stoner could be quite an inspiration to those wanting to recover from such issues. To label it the way that journo did was outrageous IMO, and a lost opportunity for others. And to pocket such bad journalism into some kind of Rossi argument is way off the mark.

It was rather extreme from Chubby but then again I think that Melbourne Park should not keep talking about his son and his condition connected to what Stoner has because it is not relevant and just distracts, he is too defensive / aggressive on the matter which is fair enough considering it is important to him but out of place here, especially when it makes him lose perspective when talking about other peoples thoughts on the matter, ie Moody's. MelPark's son has something that he cares about a lot and I hope his son gets better soon, but lets face it Stoner had something NOT RELATED that made him come 4th/5th in a GP race so he stopped for a few races and now he is winning again. That's hardly chronic is it, rather more acute. Considering a lot of normal people cannot do one GP race without getting knackered how actually ill is he for a normal human rather than a top sport star?

Can we get back to this weekends racing? We all speak our minds here and no doubt we all get up each others noses, but I think we all look forward to reading this thread and at the moment it is getting a bit uncomfortable.So, what are your predictions for the race? Stoner, Lorenzo, Rossi or Pedrosa? I have no idea but as I mentioned earlier I think Lorenzo just from Stoner. Maybe. Having said that maybe Pedrosa will run away.

I have sneaky Spies will beat Colin. Colin has been saying it's a lot harder so that will be fun if he does. Wonder what Colin will say then? But it is harder of course, so it will be interesting to see. You probably won't be sympathetic but my new dog has been growling at me all evening. Man, he must be a Stoner fandog

It was rather extreme from Chubby but then again I think that Melbourne Park should not keep talking about his son and his condition connected to what Stoner has because it is not relevant and just distracts, he is too defensive / aggressive on the matter which is fair enough considering it is important to him but out of place here, especially when it makes him lose perspective when talking about other peoples thoughts on the matter, ie Moody's. MelPark's son has something that he cares about a lot and I hope his son gets better soon, but lets face it Stoner had something NOT RELATED that made him come 4th/5th in a GP race so he stopped for a few races and now he is winning again. That's hardly chronic is it, rather more acute. Considering a lot of normal people cannot do one GP race without getting knackered how actually ill is he for a normal human rather than a top sport star?

Can we get back to this weekends racing? We all speak our minds here and no doubt we all get up each others noses, but I think we all look forward to reading this thread and at the moment it is getting a bit uncomfortable.So, what are your predictions for the race? Stoner, Lorenzo, Rossi or Pedrosa? I have no idea but as I mentioned earlier I think Lorenzo just from Stoner. Maybe. Having said that maybe Pedrosa will run away.

I have sneaky Spies will beat Colin. Colin has been saying it's a lot harder so that will be fun if he does. Wonder what Colin will say then? But it is harder of course, so it will be interesting to see. You probably won't be sympathetic but my new dog has been growling at me all evening. Man, he must be a Stoner fandog

RegardsAndy

I could go on further but I do think its a distraction. However for some people, its curable inside a few months. And we don't know when it started for Stoner. Acute/chronic is hardly the issue - its a post viral issue that creates on-going fatigue. It appears that Stoner is over it. Hopefully - as relapses can happen. With Stoner, it wasn't mental fatigue due to not having holidays for years, or due to him wanting to win, or due to Rossi breaking him mentally, it was a chronic or semi chronic fatigue if you will, an exclusion based diagnosis of fatigue that he suffered from.

Thanks to you for your positive thoughts about my son, and to most especially ex Rhodie Racer, one of the most polite, clever and decent posters!

I could go on further but I do think its a distraction. However for some people, its curable inside a few months. And we don't know when it started for Stoner. Acute/chronic is hardly the issue - its a post viral issue that creates on-going fatigue. It appears that Stoner is over it. Hopefully - as relapses can happen. With Stoner, it wasn't mental fatigue due to not having holidays for years, or due to him wanting to win, or due to Rossi breaking him mentally, it was a chronic or semi chronic fatigue if you will, an exclusion based diagnosis of fatigue that he suffered from.

Thanks to you for your positive thoughts about my son, and to most especially ex Rhodie Racer, one of the most polite, clever and decent posters!

Ok fair point, it seems a shame not everyone gets over it quickly, good luck in that regards, let us know how things go.

But when it falsely discusses health issues - that is beyond the pale. It's simply not justifiable IMO. And it negatively effects others as well.

A fair examination of Stoner's health issues could have helped many people who might go through such ill health issues - at work, in sport, in life. Stoner could be quite an inspiration to those wanting to recover from such issues. To label it the way that journo did was outrageous IMO, and a lost opportunity for others. And to pocket such bad journalism into some kind of Rossi argument is way off the mark.

Absolutely.

Other than an understandable if reprehensible ignorance of chronic fatigue, there were some other significant factors at work in the reporting of Stoner's case. Virtually *every* report mentioned in some way Casey's reluctance to do PR work on behalf of his employers, and of the difference between his sporting approach and Ducati's. Many, not least Moody, went as far as to attribute Stoner's health problems to this gulf in attitude between the two. Instant retribution. Stoner became an irascible, Australian stick to beat Ducati and their paymasters Marlboro with. Considering Marlboro's unsympathetic response to Stoner's health issues, and their rather distasteful courting of Jorge Lorenzo throughout the summer (at the expense either of Stoner or paddock beau Nicky Hayden), such a feeling was reciprocated by the reported-on. And further considering the general public perception of Philip Morris International, which involves a level of popularity usually reserved for deposed third-world dictators and reality TV contestants, it's not surprising that Stoner should suffer as a sort of collateral in this corporate antagonism.

With respect to DMG's handling of the AMA Pro Road Racing series this year, and more specifically their participants:

“In the end there were some big accidents but, geez, we don’t need the cars getting upside down like this,’’ [Ryan] Newman said. “This is ridiculous. There is way more technology than that to help us out. Whether it is a speed issue, a roof flap issue, whatever.’’

It was Newman who complained about the airborne accidents after the spring race [at Talladega].

“It is ridiculous situation,’’ he said. “It is a shame that not more is getting done. I don’t know. I guess maybe I expect NASCAR to call me. I am the only guy out there with an engineering degree. I would like to have a little respect on my end.’’

Drivers used to be able to respect each other and race around each other. Richard Petty, David Pearson and Bobby Allison and all those guys have always done that. I guess they don’t think much of us anymore.”

It's nice to find solidarity where you least expect it. I hope these gangsters get taken out.

Other than an understandable if reprehensible ignorance of chronic fatigue, there were some other significant factors at work in the reporting of Stoner's case. Virtually *every* report mentioned in some way Casey's reluctance to do PR work on behalf of his employers, and of the difference between his sporting approach and Ducati's. Many, not least Moody, went as far as to attribute Stoner's health problems to this gulf in attitude between the two. Instant retribution. Stoner became an irascible, Australian stick to beat Ducati and their paymasters Marlboro with. Considering Marlboro's unsympathetic response to Stoner's health issues, and their rather distasteful courting of Jorge Lorenzo throughout the summer (at the expense either of Stoner or paddock beau Nicky Hayden), such a feeling was reciprocated by the reported-on. And further considering the general public perception of Philip Morris International, which involves a level of popularity usually reserved for deposed third-world dictators and reality TV contestants, it's not surprising that Stoner should suffer as a sort of collateral in this corporate antagonism.

Could point about the Dark Empire (that major sponsor), and the likelihood that the media kowtow to their financial influence.

However - I think Stoner does not like the media thing. He's typical of several Australian sportsmen in that regard ... another example is the bicycle rider, Cadel Evans, a recent dual runner up in the Tour de France. Both appear to have the same mental make-up, and appear to be somewhat private people. Rossi on the other hand is extrovert, and from the publics' perspective, an absolutely great guy. I reckon anyone bumping into Rossi on race weekend would love him - but do the same to Cadel or Casey, and the impression would probably be negative. That spills over in to media contempt I guess ... but perhaps, the Dark Empire is another factor again.

I heard about this a month ago and I was not surprised. The newest scenario seems more believable because it seems to early to can Livio when Valentino has another year left and could resign. But if you believe the more extreme parts of the Italian media and motogp announcers who saide Valentino was pissed at Yamaha and had already made up his mind to leave in either one of the FP at PI or Malaysia maybe is was Estoril. The whole Rossi thing for me is harder to believe

Domenicali revealed that the team will be restructured after Suppo's departure, with Alessandro Cicognani taking over as project manager, alongside current Ducati test rider Vittoriano Guareschi, who will become team manager